Clever Wordplay Using the Words “Transit” and “Transition”
As a member of the new executive, allow me to take some to introduce myself and my position. My name is Steven Heidel and I’m going into my fourth year of an honours degree in computer science. I feel greatly privileged to represent you as the Vice-President Operations and Finance.
As the VP OpFin (as us cool kids like to abbreviate it), the responsibilities of my position fall into 3 major categories: budget, campus groups, and transit. As one of the overseers of the budget I make sure that the USSU is spending its money in the most efficient way possible. This requires being fiscally conservative in our dealings as we always are mindful that most of our revenue comes directly from the students. The second responsibility is campus groups, an area for which I have high aspirations. The USSU has much to offer in terms of resources for campus groups, especially some of our businesses such as Louis’, and I look forward to helping groups find how best we can help them. Finally, transit issues are always relevant due to the number of students who take the bus and use U-PASS.
Over the past few weeks the entire executive has been meeting with various University and community figures, as well as brainstorming some of the projects we’d like to accomplish during this year. This has included meeting with the incoming U of S president Ilene Busch-Vishniac, the chair of the Board of Governors Nancy Hopkins, and the Minister of Advanced Education Rob Norris. All of these officials are eager to have a dialogue with the students through the USSU and we are looking forward to facilitating that.
One of my more interesting meetings was with Saskatoon Transit where we discussed several exciting initiatives for the coming year. Talks into a Summer U-PASS have entered the final stage and we should have a proposal to offer to students very soon. Also, some buses will soon be equipped with GPS that will allow you to check the status of your bus route live.
Overall I am looking forward to a very productive year with the USSU. My door is always open on the second floor of Place Riel for anyone to talk with me, especially if you are involved with campus groups and have ideas relating to that. I look forward to meeting you!
Steven
